Emotions
by Aragem
Summary: A collection of short stories concerning my Mass Effect OCs.  This is just whatever I'm in the mood to write.  Most of it will be about relationships.
1. Life

He didn't know why he chose to go back each night. It wasn't something he looked forward too when he consciously thought of it. Yet, after hours spent in night in a scum ridden bar in the lower side of Omega, he found himself heading toward the docks where the ship was docked, where she was laying half asleep limbs tangled in the covers of his bunk. As if she was frickin' waiting for him.

He ducked his head has he stepped through the hatch. This vessel was too small for the four people who shared it. Fortuantely, Colette and Lin had opted to return to their old apartment, the one they had shared together on Omega. It wasn't the safest neighborhood on Omega, but the Blue Suns kept the peace as long as they were paid their protection money.

The asari cop was out now, doing what, he didn't know nor care to know. He just hoped that she didn't get it in her head to be a cop here on Omega. Omega had no police force, peace was kept with piece makers. No one protected you unless you gave them what they wanted. Money, drugs, sex, power, the things that made Omega live.

There she was, sprawl across the bunk, covers pulled up to her chin as she curled on her side in what humans called a fetal position. Lynn Sheridan, the poor lost soul from more than hundred years ago in Earth's history. The little miss Rip Van Wrinkle who woke up in a world where her husband and daughter had grown old and died without her. A world where humanity had gone beyond their solar system and mingled with a intergalactic government after fighting a war with his people.

A war that took his father. He had been young, too young to join the service, but not too young to understand death and hate. For most of his young life, he hated them. Hated that they weren't decimated in the Relay Incident, hated that they so quickly acclimated to the Council Community, and joined the Council. He never gone out of his way to hurt them though, he had avoided them, cursed them while drunk, but he never went out of his way to hurt them. After years in the service, he understood that the humans had fought against what they believed was alien agression. His father had died in a war where it was soldiers killing soldiers. Nothing malicious about fighting for survival.

Yet, he still didn't like humans.

He didn't like Lynn. She constantly moped, and brooded in deep thought until someone disturbed her thoughts. She didn't act or move forward unless prompted to do so which infuriated the man of action Turian. If she regretted life so much, why not kill herself.

She did try to kill herself. He stopped her.

"Lynn! Open the fucking door!" His gloved knuckles banged on the hard surface that reflected his appearance. No answer on her omni-tool, and Alice said that she hadn't seen her at all this morning.

No answer. Looks like he's going to have to hack his way in. It was a simple program on his omni-tool. It sifted through combinations of numbers until it finds the right one for the door. Within seconds, the door slide apart and he stepped inside. The dark room felt heavy with silence. He commanded the lights on and was greeted to the clean living room. The vid was off and Lynn wasn't in her usual spot on the couch brooding again.

"Lynn. . . " His sharp eyes spotted the lamp filtering down from the upstairs balcony of the loft. A cold sense of premonition had him hurrying up the stairs. Lynn was curled on her side on the bed, wearing her bedclothes and eyes closed in a deep sleep. On the bedstead was an open bottle of pills. . . .

Goddammit, Lynn!" He was at her side, yanking her up by the shoulder and roughly cuffing her cheek. "Wake up. . . wake up now dammit!"

Her head lolled sickenly to the side and he propped her up and slapped her hard enough to smack loudly. She opened her eyes, looked at him groggily for a moment and then closed them again. He dragged her from the bed, half carried, half dragged her to the bathroom. He ripped open the shower door and shoved her inside. He held her up as he commanded the water on at a freezing temperature.

Lynn wailed as the icy water splashed against her skin with biting cold. He held her there, his free hand summon C-Sec emergency services. Within fifteen minutes, paramedics were at the door firing questions at him. How many pills did she take? How long ago did you find her? Has she woken up any at all?

Then they carted her off to the nearest hospital while he answered yet more questions from a C-sec officer. She was treated and placed under observations for a week and then spent a month in the psych ward where an asari or human psychiatrist would try to treat for depression. He knew nothing would change. Her heart was too badly damaged and hurt. It wasn't just about loosing her family. It was the knowledge that they had so easily moved on without her and it was her own government behind it call that caused her deep sleep and purposely had her "disappear" so she didn't awake until one hundred years later.

Lynn was out and back in her apartment doing the same as before. Brooding, except Alice and her lover Harla visited her often. It was a suicide watch and he knew that Lynn knew that. They checked her possessions, making sure that there was no more sleeping pills or anything she could end her life with. He suspected that they removed all the knives from her kitchen drawers.

He stayed away, keeping his distance and refused any requests to visit Lynn. He didn't want to see her, to see the waste she was making of her life. He wanted nothing to do with her, nothing more from her. He should have let her die, just give her what she wanted.

He didn't know how or why, but he ended up checking on her. Maybe it was Harla pestering him or Alice's nagging that finally got him to make that sordid journey to Lynn's apartment. He didn't bother knocking, just simply hacked the door and walked in. She was upstairs and he was ready to see another open bottle of pills by her bed, except this time she was awake and watching him approach her.

"Hey." Was all he could think of to say. He stood at her bedside. She looked thin, and tired, so very tired. She had bathed recently, he could smell the mild soap on her skin and the shampoo in her hair.

"I never thought I see you here again." Lynn replied, shifting as she propped herself up.

"Yeah, Harla said to check on you. So here I am." Hendrix shifted his weight uncomfortably.

"Now you've checked on me. I'm fine. You can leave." Lynn muttered, already pushing away.

"Want to spend all your time bemoaning how life was grand back on Earth one hundred years ago?' He had taunted her cruelly.

"Go fuck yourself." She snapped. Her past life had always been her sore spot. She sat up, "Why did you stop me? You obviously hate me. Hated me since you met me because I'm human."

"I don't hate you because of that. I hate you because you look like you're going to, as you humans call it, "bust into tears" at any moment." He flexed his mandibles in aggravation. "You keep morning over people that have been dead for decades. They haven't even been murdered or killed. They died of old age."

He notice her flinch and he leaned forward, "That's it, isn't it. You can't stand it that they moved on without you. That your husband remarried and your little girl had a new mother. You can't stand that you were so easily replaced like piece of broken furniture."

"Shut up." She hissed at him. "Stop acting like my therapists. . . "

"People die and people move on. My father died when I was a child, but did I stop living? My mother didn't swallow a bottle of sleeping pills. . . "

"You had your mother. She had you." Lynn hissed through her teeth propelling herself to get to her feet. "I have no one."

"Because Colette didn't want you to be her surrogate mother? Because she didn't need you? That she chose to accept this time and live in it? Maybe you should get your head out of your ass . . ."

"Stop." She pressed the heels of her hands over her ears. "Just stop it. . .you don't care. Just get your skullfaced ass out of here. . . .don't come into my home and insult me. . ."

He didn't know how it happened or why. Maybe her calling him skullface turned him on or her being angry made her that more attractive. He fell into bed with her. There was some resistance at first, butting her head against his as he pressed his brow against hers in a turian kiss. His hands slide down her waist while her arms curled around his neck, drawing his face against her neck.

It wasn't the best sex he ever had. He had lain with turians and asari and knew their differences. Humans were different he learned. Her flesh was soft, and her coloring was natural like carapace of a female turian.

When it was over, he lay beside her, listening to her soft panting. He stayed there with her until she fell asleep and then he risen up, dressed, and left. They never spoke of it again. And he doubted that she spoke of it to Harla or Alice.

But after that, Lynn came out of her shell. She actually went grocery shopping by herself the following morning and met Alice for lunch at a nearby cafe the next day. More and more, she came out of her apartment and interacted. Yes, there was bad days when she chose to stay inside her apartment.

He never visited her again.

He sat down at the edge of the bunk and watched her sleep. She had retreated back into her shell again. Omega has that effect on people. They would be leaving soon, heading back to the Citadel where they could continue their meager lives. Lynn had wanted Colette to come, but the young human refused to leave her Quarian boyfriend behind.

He might as well go ahead and plot the course. He rose and turned toward the front of the ship when his wrist was caught.

"Hendrix." Lynn's voice carried like a soft whisper.

"Lynn, go back to sleep."

"No, I. . . I was trying to wait for you. . . you smell like booze."

"Omega smells like booze. What do you want?" Hendrix stepped back, and let her hand drop from his wrist.

"Just to. . . talk." Lynn sat up, blinking the sleep from her eyes. "Please, I. . . don't want to fight. . . I just want to know. . . why you never came back to me. . ."

He was silent for a solid minute as her words sank in. Lynn watched him quietly, waiting for his response. His mandiables twitched and he said, "You wanted me to come back?"

"I. . .I don't know. I. . . just thought you would since. . .it was your idea that time. . ."

"Trust me, I didn't go to your apartment that day just for that. I wasn't planning on screwing you that day. It just happened."

"Why did it happen?"

"I don't know." He knew she wouldn't accept that answer and he didn't blame her, but that was all he had to offer.

"So you don't know why you slept with me. Why you made me feel alive for the first time since I woke up?" Her voice was beginning to strain, showing emotion that was better left alone.

"It was just a lay,, a good time, please, don't make it into something that it isn't." Hendrix muttered mentally cursing himself and her.

"I'm not. God, I would never assume that you have any warm feelings for me. I know I don't feel anything like that toward you. Just. . . .can't we just share a moment again. . . like before. It doesn't have to be anything more than that."

Friends with benefits. That's what friends called this. Yes, he was familiar with relationships such as this. He had his share of sexual friends before in the service. It relieved stress, and allowed them to feel something other than the solid duty of their oaths.

Lynn touched his arm, a gentle caress along his armor. "I know you watch me each time you come back. . . .I keep waiting to see if you'll do anything. . ."

"What do you want me to do?" He lowered himself, to kneel on one knee.

"I'll show you." She whispered drawing him close.

He'll regret this one day and so will she. Right now, his common sense was telling him to brush aside her hand and just leave it and her alone. Yet, his other hand was cupping the side of her face.

Damn her and himself too.


	2. Broken

The humans had a story. A fairy tale they called it. Most of their fairytales featured a princess or a young girl. One of those stories was called Sleeping Beauty. In the story, a princess is cursed to a deep sleep or coma and the spell could only be broken by a kiss from a prince.

Lynn chose her prince and it wasn't him. It was a drell that went by the name Thane Krios. He never saw it coming, never believed that Lynn would fall for someone so dangerous. He didn't know the drell personally, but he knew of his work. Thane Krios who slew a path of destruction through the Batarian underworld after they made the sad mistake of murdering his wife.

Lynn didn't know of it or understand it. She wasn't part of that world and yet she was more than willing to follow the pretty drell right through the front door.

Hendrix ordered another drink and drank deep. The drank went down bitterly, but did its job in giving him a nice glowy warmth that shielded him from the bitter memory of last night.

Their relationship continued as it had started. Quiet and private. It wasn't every night that they coupled, but it happened often enough that they knew each other's habits in and out of bed. He always went to her, she never came to his place for their consummations. He even had a key to her apartment to let himself in so he can forgo the hacking.

He slipped inside her apartment and found her cooking. She rarely cooked. She never said anything about it, but he assumed that it was because it reminded her too much of being a housewife and mother. She was stirring a powdery substance in the pot. Glancing over her shoulder, she noticed him for the first time.

"Hendrix, hey, please, pull up a seat. I don't know if I have anything that a Turian can eat, but I can at least get you a glass of water."

Well, well, she was asking him to sit. This was a first. He remained standing, having a cold sense of premonition of something was going to happen that he wouldn't like. He wanted to ask if she was in the mood for sex, but he thought it too crude to ask. Instead, "You're looking well."

"I feel better." Lynn replied glancing at him again. Was that nervousness he saw in her eye? "But I don't think I feel up to. . . "it" right now."

"That's fine." He inclining his head as if shrugging it off. "I can come back tomorrow. . . "

"No, you don't have to." There was a finality in her voice that set him on edge.

He watched her back and said, "If you're going to dump me, then the very least you can do is look me in the eye."

"I'm not dumping you." She still wouldn't turn around.

"Okay, telling me to piss off or take a hike as you humans say. . . whatever the fuck you call it, look at me." He wanted to stride across the floor and grab her shoulder and spin her around, but that was a serious offense in their relationship. She would send him across the room with a biotic fling and never have anything to do with him.

She turn down the burner and turned around to face him. "Hendrix, we never committed to anything."

That was true. "Yeah, but I think I at least get a courtesy of a warning before you throw ice water on this."

"This? What exactly do we have?' Lynn's hackles were rising and this was going to lead into a fight. "You just come over and give me a good dicking twice a week."

"You wanted more from me? You never asked for more." Hendrix pointed a claw at her. "You set the rules for this relationship. I just play along."

"And I am ending it." Lynn spread her hands, flinging them aside as if tossing him away from her. "I'm sorry if you thought this was going to lead into something more, but I don't want to go any further with this."

"Just admit to one thing. You are putting me aside to make room for Thane Krios."

Lynn's face blanched and her face drew into a venomous look. "I don't know what you are talking about."

"Don't even try to lie about it." Hendrix's voice was heavy as lead. "You look at him as if. . . he was some sort of god. . . he's an assasin, Lynn, a goddamn assasin that has killed more people than you can imagine."

She flinched, a momentary blink of the eyes and twist of the mouth. Ah, he had touched upon something she didn't like to think about. Good, this was something she needed to think about, to realize that her little fantasy about Thane was a lie and things could go back to the way they were.

"You've killed." He heard her murmur softly, her eyes accussingly.

"There is a huge gap between killing in self-defense and killing for money." She wasn't going to listen to him. He could see the stubbornness written across her face. She was going to hold firm to her view of the assasin just as she held onto her grief for so long. He wanted to hit her, to hit her so hard it cracked that that glare in her eyes apart. He stayed back, knowing that hitting her would get no where and show that he cared too much.

Fuck, he should care at all about this, about her. She was a good lay, for a human, and for a bitch for that matter. He did fine before he met her and he would do better if she moved onto someone else. Let her be Thane's problem, he can have her. Maybe he'll do himself and the world a favor and just kill her. Send her to hell to her family and that way everyone is happy.

He could see the turmoil in her eyes. She was trying to deny the truth, but it was a fact. There were records of it that she knew about and yet it did not dissuade her attraction toward the soft spoken drell. She wanted him to leave, to leave her alone with her own thoughts. Her eyes focused on him and the next words out of her mouth was so very unlike her. "If I fuck you, will you leave me alone about this and stay away?"

This time, it was all he could do to keep from surging across the kitchen and smashing his fist into her face. It was his years of training in the Turian military and his own rearing by his strict mother that kept him from commiting such a violent act. Instead, he took her up on her offer.

Before, when he had been gentle with her, he roughly grabbed her flesh, not caring if his talons scratch her skin or his plated body left chafing or bruises. She didn't speak to him thoroughout, nor when he shoved his face into her hair did she try to kiss him or brush her lips across his mandibles. He came, not caring if she climaxed or not. He also made sure to release deep inside her, maybe she'll get an infection from his dextro-protein fluids.

He left soon afterward. In the past, he would have stayed with her till she fell asleep. This time he dressed without a word and left without looking at her. He never wanted to see her again.


End file.
